U.S. VP Joe Biden flies into diplomatic turbulence
Opinion: U.S. VP Joe Biden flies into diplomatic turbulence in Asia
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrives in Tokyo on Monday on the first leg of a major week long trip to Asia. Biden lands at a time of significant regional tension following Beijing's announcement last week of a new "air defense identification zone" situated between China and Japan.
Since the declaration of
the air zone, China has insisted that all aircraft must submit flight
plans before entering. The United States has urged calm, and this will
be a theme which Biden will emphasize during his visit.
The zone includes
airspace over islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China,
which both countries claim as their own. The dispute over these
territories is not new, but has become more salient since the Japanese
government decided to nationalize them last year.
Since last week, Washington has recommended that U.S. commercial aircraft report their flight plans to Beijing,
although U.S. military aircraft continue to operate without
notification. Meanwhile, Japan (which also continues to operate flights
in the zone) announced on Saturday that it has asked the UN organization
that oversees civil aviation to examine whether the zone could
undermine aviation safety.
Tokyo's ambition here is
to bring enhanced international scrutiny to this issue in a bid to
undercut Beijing. While air zones of this nature are commonplace across
the world -- Japan declared its own exclusion zone, which partially overlaps China's, in the late 1960s -- there
is concern that China has both imposed this measure unilaterally and
warned that it will take unspecified "emergency defensive measures" if
aircraft do not comply with submitting flight plans (already, it has
frayed some nerves by sending fighter jets to investigate U.S. and
Japanese aircraft in the zone).
Whatever Beijing's
motives in declaring the zone, it will add to the growing international
tide of suspicion and sometimes even outright hostility as China
increasingly asserts its growing power. The central challenge the
country faces here is that its soft power -- its ability to win the
hearts and minds of other nations and influence their governments
through attraction rather than coercion or payment -- has lagged far
behind its hard power built on its growing economic and military might.
China sends fighter jets to disputed zone
Air defense zones: How are they created?
What's South Korea's role in dispute?
In Japan, for instance, public favorability toward China fell from 34% to 15% between 2011 and 2012, according to Pew Global, largely in response to China's new international assertiveness.
Meanwhile, in the United
States public favorability toward China fell to 40% in 2012 from 51% in
2011. Issues such as Beijing's alleged currency manipulation, the large
size of the U.S. trade deficit with China and the large U.S. financial
debt held by Beijing, not to mention alleged Chinese cybersecurity
attacks on U.S. interests, has taken its toll on U.S. public opinion.
With distrust of China
growing, many countries in Asia-Pacific are actively strengthening their
diplomatic alliances, particularly with Washington, in a bid to balance
Beijing's growing economic and military strength. This is a political
headache the new Chinese leadership could do without and it must now
think hard about how to enhance the country's image in the world.
Most immediately,
Beijing must restart a process of addressing concerns of foreign
governments about its intentions. Here, it needs to intensify efforts to
be seen as a responsible, peaceful power. And match this rhetoric with
actions.
President Xi Jinping
made a good start toward this goal in his landmark summit with U.S.
President Barack Obama last summer. He pledged to form a "new model of
co-operation" and that "China and the United States must find a new path
... one that is different from the inevitable confrontation and
conflict between the major countries of the past."
As the Pew Global data
indicates, China's international image would also benefit from enhanced
public diplomacy to win more foreign "hearts and minds." At a symbolic
level, example measures might include utilizing the country's growing
capabilities in space travel for high-profile international cooperation
projects. Surveys underline that many around the world admire China's
strength in science and technology.
A related problem to be
tackled is that international communications of Chinese state
institutions often lack legitimacy and credibility with foreigners. One
solution might be expanding the numbers of non-state groups -- including
from civil society networks, diaspora communities, student and academic
groups and business networks -- involved in the country's diplomatic
outreach.
For many foreign
publics, there also needs to be stronger Chinese commitment to domestic
political change, transparency and concrete steps towards
democratization. Many in the international community are likely to
remain wary of the country while it clamps down on its own citizens
seeking domestic reform, including human rights activists.
Taken overall, the
challenges ahead for China are deep-seated and will require sustained
investment and significant reform. However, unless they are tackled, the
country's reputational problems will increasingly disable, rather than
enable, its ambitions as a rising super power.
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